My husband has an iPhone for work, and we have a stay-in-the-house iPhone, as well, an older model discarded by Ken that the kids love to play with.

Like most media, we have to regulate the time they spend playing iPhone games, but they do enjoy them….and I’m pleasantly aware that about half of the games they choose have educational value!

What are the kids’ top favorites? I thought I’d share them with you. Maybe you can find one or two that your kids would dig!

(Note: I’m linking many of these to review sites we usually refer to for each new app we download. Search for these apps within Google or directly via iTunes for download instructions.)

Dress Chica – Based on the lovable character from PBS Sprout’s Sunny Side Up Show, this preschool app lets your little one dress Chica in funny clothes, all the while teaching vocabulary. Fun sound effects abound.

Trace – Though not specifically for kids, this is one of G’s favorites. This app is stellar in regards to critical thinking skill building as well as art. The soundtrack is fun, too!

Giraffe’s Matching Zoo – Another preschool favorite. A simple matching game in the style of good old fashioned “Memory,” but with fun animal sounds.

Layers – Another not-kid-geared app, but a terrific, detailed art app for dexterous little fingers. Create art having five layers, hence the name, and draw with a wide array of brushes and colors.

Talking Tom – Okay. This one is just for fun. No educational value found here. But the kids find him immensely entertaining. And it freaks adults out the first time they hear Tom speak. :)

Faces I Make – A found-art collage art app that helps kids stretch their creative horizons!

My Little Suitcase – Lets your kids pack a suitcase and decide on a destination for a virtual vacation.

Sunday Lawn – Strictly arcade-style gaming here. Our G is pretty good at it and loves it! Biding his time, I guess, until his Dad lets him drive the REAL lawn mower.

We Rule – A personalizable territory game in the style of Farmville, but much more elegant. Create a kingdom, plant and harvest crops, and meet new neighbors. I have to say — the music backdrop is my favorite part of this app.

Fruit Ninja – This one is just plain addictive. Take turns with your kids virtually slicing fruit with the swipe of your finger. It’s only messy on-screen!

(*Note: I was not asked to write this post, share my reviews, or compensated in any way. I am just simply telling about our family’s favorite apps — nothing more. :)

In the late 70s and into the 80s, making “Sun Tea” was a huge trend.

I remember my mom making a gallon of sun tea every few days in the summer. She had the classic yellow-lidded jar, and I saw it sitting in the center of our driveway many an afternoon.

The kids just wanted enough to taste, so we made ours in individual canning jars. All you need is: Sterilized jars with lids, purified/distilled water, tea bags, and a warm, sunny day.

Simply place one tea bag into each jar of water, then seal well.

By 6pm, the tea was radiantly dark and ready for drinking!

Add the sugar first, so it can dissolve in the warm tea….then add ice and enjoy!

(Drink within a day or two, since the process for making sun tea creates an environment that can breed bacteria. Store in refrigerator.)

We’re so thankful to have a lower den that is big enough to accommodate a homeschool classroom! We painted it a warmer color this summer and painted the dark stained trim white. The furniture is a mix-mash of furniture intended for kids’ rooms and “grown up furniture.”

Two unmatched desks sit facing each other right beside the window. This allows the kids to share art supplies when they’ll be working together, as well as saves space!

The drawer-filled cart behind the desks is a CSN Stores purchase. It holds all of our construction paper, drawing paper, handwriting paper, and watercolor paper.

We have a corner for hanging charts, a classroom addition I decided we needed to make a necessity this year. Above the one on the right will be a cork board for hanging up artwork.

I tried to keep subjects separated, to create “centers” in a way, but can’t quite make things fit together in the right way. Some more rearranging may be in the future. Here is a combo shelf for math and reading/phonics items.

There’s another cubby shelf for science/history/geography items. The kids’ “cubbies” are also in this shelf. I’m especially excited about being able to fit subject-themed books on the shelves….one extra shelf moved in gave us room enough for those this year.

So that’s it!
We’re super excited.
The rest of my weekend is going to be filled with lesson planning.

I will be blogging the kids’ homeschooling progress on their own, private, password-protected blogs, shared with family only. (This is a terrific idea/tip I learned via a speaker at last week’s HOTM Conference!)

It’s amazing how much you can find online these days. Makes it hard to imagine what it was like to homeschool before the days of internet connections!

The world wide web has been a great source of information and inspiration for me…as I began to consider homeschooling, as I researched its methods, as I sought the “how tos” of homeschooling, and as I formally began to get our school accredited and official.

Here’s a semi-all-inclusive list of links, webpages, and online resources I’ve used and found incredibly helpful. Enjoy:

First Things First:

~ How to decide to homeschool
~ Check the homeschooling laws within your state
~ Homeschooling classrooms in photos….inspiration link-up via the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop at Life With My 3 Boybarians
~ Finding which homeschooling method is right for you and your family

Planning and Organizing:

~ DonnaYoung.org (plethora of printables)
~ The Well-Planned Day…the planner I’m using this year and love so far
~ Passport Academy also has a wonderful list of homeschooling printables
~ Categorize your books online with LibraryThing

Community:

~ The Homeschool Lounge is a wonderful meeting place with forums — folks respond to questions right away and are very helpful
~ Heart of the Matter Online’s forum is also a wonderful aid

Miscellaneous:

~ Heart of the Matter Online’s main site has a wealth of articles written by and for homeschooling moms
~ HomeschoolShare gives lots of free lapbooking ideas and resources
~ Stuff for Classroom Teachers (a staggering list of resources)
- Super Teacher Worksheets
~ Bible Memory Verse Card Maker
~ Highland Heritage Forms (forms, forms, and more forms)

I have tons more — believe me — but these are my top favs.

Tomorrow: A tour of our homeschool classroom and a glimpse at our weekly schedule.

Last year, picking curriculum was a breeze. I just needed to find one set of all-inclusive preschool curriculum for Gardner, then buy extra student books for Rainey so she could join in. We ended up using Horizon Preschool by Alpha Omega Publications and liked it….for the most part.

(Aside: What we’re learning is that every curriculum has its faults. The only “perfect curriculum,” I suppose, is one you write yourself for your own children! But who has time for that?! :)

This year, our decision to let G advance to 1st grade work didn’t necessarily mean we should rush R into kindergarten work, so I knew I’d have to buy a lot more. G is also a very hands-on, kinesthetic learner, so I knew I’d supplement some science for him. Here’s what we ended up with, and I have to say, from what I’ve seen of it so far (not actually having taught it yet), I’m pleased with our decisions:

1) The main curriculum “base” will be My Father’s World, a classical homeschooling curriculum that’s Charlotte Mason-based. It’s very hands on and seems to be very comprehensive. We will mainly use it for topic guidelines as well as for G’s handwriting, both kids’ history and both kids’ Bible.

2) Science for G will be supplemented by a book recommended by my adviser at our homeschooling association, a book by Janice Van Cleave, Teaching the Fun of Science to Young Learners.

3) Math-U-See will be our math curriculum. R will be starting with the Primer level and G with the Alpha level. LOVE what I’ve heard about them so far, and impressed by the materials. Hoping it will even make ME less wary of math as we go along. (And Math-U-See is excellent for hands-on learners.)

4) Depending on how well MFW does for G’s phonics and reading, we may venture into “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons” book I’ve had stowed away. Rainey will be working independently on phonics in the three introductory books in the Explode the Code series: Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the Code, and Go for the Code.

5) We will also be doing art projects from other books I’ve tucked away for later….and will be following MFW’s guidelines for introducing the kids to both art and classical music. (Can’t wait for this!)

Behind the scenes of this big decision has been a giant mountain of curriculum catalogs, questions asked to The Homeschool Lounge’s forums and the weighing of experienced mom’s recommendations, and lots of prayer and begged-for discernment.

Curriculum is not a small investment – - and it’s not something we want to change mid-year because we’re unsatisfied with it. Part of the beauty of homeschooling is being able to have such great control over what curriculum you use to teach your children….but with great power comes great responsibility. It IS a tough decision.